Mobile devices proliferate all aspects of daily life and are usable for telecommunications. Users with mobile devices frequently travel to a variety of places for a variety of purposes. It is conceivable that regardless of what or where a place might be, if there is a human user in that place, it is very likely that the user has a mobile device on the user's person or otherwise available to the user with which to establish a telecommunications call (hereinafter, “call”).
A call is any suitable method of telecommunication, including but not limited to audio telephonic communications, video telecommunications, textual messaging, taptically or haptically telecommunicating information, and generally telecommunication of data in these and other forms. Any type of mobile device can be used for a call. A mobile device is capable of relocating from one location to another as the user associated with the mobile device moves from one location to another. As some non-limiting examples, the mobile device can take the form of a cellular phone, a smartphone device, a tablet computer, a portable computing platform, a wearable device, and the like.
A typical call begins with a calling user (hereinafter, “caller”) dialing a number associated with a mobile device that is associated with a called user (hereinafter, “callee”). A service provider connects the call between the caller's telecommunication device and the callee's mobile device using one or more service provider systems. In some cases, the caller selects a callee's name, such as from a phonebook or a similar contacts management application, and the caller's device calls the number stored relative to the callee's name in the phonebook.
In some cases, a caller may not know the callee or a callee's number. A caller can use a directory service, whereby the caller identifies the intended callee by name, address, or both, and the directory service provides the callee's number to the caller, connects the call between the caller and the callee, or both.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that for the directory service to work using only the address, the callee's number has to be permanently associated with that address, even if the number is assigned to a mobile device. In other words, if a callee has to be reached only by knowing the callee's address, the callee's number must be unchangeably associated with the address, even if the device associated with the number is mobile.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that presently, there is no available method by which a caller could call any callee who may be present at a given location at a given time. In other words, if a caller were interested in calling anyone who may be present at or around a specified geographical location, during a given period, the caller will be able to call that location only if either a number is permanently associated with that location and the caller calls that number, or the caller calls a specific known callee whose presence at the location is a known fact to the caller.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that such a deficiency in the present telecommunications systems is severely limiting in many circumstances. The illustrative embodiments recognize that under certain circumstances, a caller may want to call any callee who satisfies a past time-related criterion. A past-time related criterion is also interchangeably referred to as a past-related criterion, past criterion, or simply “criterion” or a grammatical variation thereof, unless expressly distinguished where used.
A location visited by a caller or a potential callee during a past period is referred to hereinafter as a “past location”. A past-related criterion is a criterion or condition, which may specify a past location, or from which a past location can be deduced, and which has a condition that was either satisfied during a past period or is satisfied at the time of the call by the caller or a potential callee.
Generally, a past-related criterion takes the following two part form—(i) a past location of the caller or a callee, and (ii) a condition satisfied in the past or the present. Some examples of part (ii) include, but are not limited to—a callee who was co-located with the caller (at the past location of part (i) at a past time); a callee who was co-located with someone other than the caller (at the past location of part (i) at a past time); a callee who was at an event (at the past location of part (i) at a past time); a callee who was co-located with someone other than the caller during an event (at the past location of part (i) at a past time). Some more examples of part (ii) include, but are not limited to—a callee who was (at the past location of part (i) at a past time) and satisfies a condition at the time of the call; a callee who was (at the past location of part (i) at a past time) and is co-located with the caller at the time of the call; a callee who was (at the past location of part (i) at a past time) and is co-located with someone other than the caller at the time of the call; a callee who was (at the past location of part (i) at a past time) and who is doing or not doing something at the time of the call; and a callee who was (at the past location of part (i) at a past time) and is co-located with an event at the time of the call.
Some example use-cases of a past-related criterion are provided now. For example, a caller might want to call anyone—even an unknown callee—who may be at a location where the caller visited earlier, to ask whether they see the caller's lost wallet there. The past location is of the caller, the condition is a present presence of the callee at the past location of the caller, and different callees may be present at that location at different times.
As another example, a caller may be a law enforcement agency who might want to call anyone—even an unknown callee—who was at an establishment at a past time, to ask whether the callee saw a wanted person engaged in an unlawful activity then and there. The wanted person is someone other than the caller, the establishment visited in the past by the callee is the past location of part (i), and the callee's co-location with the wanted person at the past time at the establishment is the condition of part (ii). Different callees, with different mobile devices, and with different numbers or identifiers, may be present at the establishment at different times.
As another example, a caller might want to call anyone—even an unknown callee—who was present at a particular restaurant when the caller had lunch there yesterday. The restaurant is the location, the past time is yesterday at the time the caller had lunch, and the condition is that the callee and caller were co-located then and there. As in the other examples above, different callees, with different mobile devices, and with different numbers or identifiers, may be present at the callee's location at different times.
As another example, the caller might be interested in calling someone who is presently at a location where the caller conducted business, or spent the most time, or performed an action, or experienced an event, etc., at a past time or during a past period. The location where the caller did something at the past time is the past location, the callee's present presence there is the condition. Again, different callees, with different mobile devices, and with different numbers or identifiers, may be present at that location at different times.
Furthermore, the caller might be interested in calling one or more than one callee who may be located at a past location and satisfies a caller-specified condition according to a past-related criterion. Furthermore, the caller may want at least n callees to respond, no more than n callees to respond, n or more callees to respond, or some combination thereof. Furthermore, the caller may want one or more responses within a given period. Not only could different callees, with different mobile devices, and with different numbers or identifiers, be present at the location during the period, but also the group of potential callees may change during the period.
Furthermore, the past location may be determined or determinable, in any suitable manner, at or after the past time. For example, the past location can be determined by determining a Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, cell tower triangulation, an application on a mobile device reporting a position in relation to an access point or beacon, an access point or beacon reporting the mobile device's proximity with them, and other similarly purposed known techniques.
Additionally, the past location of part (i) of the past-related criterion is not limited to a singular location, and can be one or more locations. Similarly, not just one but any number of conditions can be specified as part (ii) of a past-related criterion.
These examples of past-related criteria are not intended to be limiting. From this disclosure, those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to conceive many other conditions and use-cases to form other past-related criteria in a similar manner and the same are contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that presently available methods of calling are severely limited in establishing a call in these and other similar circumstances. Thus, a solution for calling one or more transient callees or callee-associated mobile devices based on a mobile device's location and a condition being satisfied is needed and will be beneficial.